As of January 1, 2019, we have closed our forums. This is a decision we did not come to lightly, but it is necessary. The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk. The server software itself must be updated, and it cannot be without removing the forums.
So it is with a heavy heart that we say goodbye to our long-running forums. They came online in 2000 and brought together so many wonderful Disney fans. We had friendships form, careers launch, couples marry, children born ... all because of this amazing community.
Thank you to each of you who were a part of this community. You made it possible.
And a very special thank you to our Guides (moderators), past and present, who kept our forums a happy place to be. You are the glue that held everything together, and we are forever grateful to you. Thank you aliceinwdw, Caldercup, MrsM, WillCAD, Fortissimo, GingerJ, HiddenMickey, CRCrazy, Eeyoresmom, disneyknut, disneydani, Cam22, chezp, WDWfan, Luvsun, KMB733, rescuesk, OhToodles!, Colexis Mom, lfredsbo, HiddenMickey, DrDolphin, DopeyGirl, duck addict, Disneybine, PixieMichele, Sandra Bostwick, Eeyore Tattoo, DyanKJ130, Suzy Q'Disney, LilMarcieMouse, AllisonG, Belle*, Chrissi, Brant, DawnDenise, Crystalloubear, Disneymom9092, FanOfMickey, Goofy4Goofy, GoofyMom, Home4us123, iamgrumpy, ilovedisney247, Jennifer2003, Jenny Pooh, KrisLuvsDisney, Ladyt, Laughaholic88, LauraBelle Hime, Lilianna, LizardCop, Loobyoxlip, lukeandbrooksmom, marisag, michnash, MickeyMAC, OffKilter_Lynn, PamelaK, Poor_Eeyore, ripkensnana, RobDVC, SHEANA1226, Shell of the South, snoozin, Statelady01, Tara O'Hara, tigger22, Tink and Co., Tinkerbelz, WDWJAMBA, wdwlovers, Wendyismyname, whoSEZ, WildforWD, and WvuGrrrl. You made the magic.
We want to personally thank Sara Varney, who coordinated our community for many years (among so many other things she did for us), and Cheryl Pendry, our Message Board Manager who helped train our Guides, and Ginger Jabour, who helped us with the PassPorter-specific forums and Live! Guides. Thank you for your time, energy, and enthusiasm. You made it all happen.
There are other changes as well.
Why? Well, the world has changed. And change with it, we must. The lyrics to "We Go On" for IllumiNations say it best:
We go on to the joy and through the tears
We go on to discover new frontiers
Moving on with the current of the years.
We go on
Moving forward now as one
Moving on with a spirit born to run
Ever on with each rising sun.
To a new day, we go on.
It's time to move on and move forward.
PassPorter is a small business, and for many years it supported our family. But the world changed, print books took a backseat to the Internet, and for a long time now it has been unable to make ends meet. We've had to find new ways to support our family, which means new careers and less and less time available to devote to our first baby, PassPorter.
But eventually, we must move on and move forward. It is the right thing to do.
So we are retiring this newsletter, as we simply cannot keep up with it. Many thanks to Mouse Fan Travel who supported it all these years, to All Ears and MousePlanet who helped us with news, to our many article contributors, and -- most importantly -- to Sara Varney who edited our newsletter so wonderfully for years and years.
And we are no longer charging for the Live Guides. If you have a subscription, it's yours to keep for the lifetime of the Live Guides at no additional cost. The Live Guides will stay online, barring server issues and technical problems, for all of 2019.
That said, PassPorter is not going away. Most of the resources will remain online for as long as we can support them, and after that we will find ways to make whatever we can available. PassPorter means a great deal to us, and to many of you, and we will do our best to keep it alive in whatever way we can. Our server costs are high, and they'll need to come out of our pockets, so in the future you can expect some changes so we can bring those costs down.
Thank you, thank you, thank you for your amazing support over the years. Without you, there's no way us little guys could have made something like this happen and given the "big guys" a run for their money. PassPorter was consistently the #3 guidebook after the Unofficial and Official guides, which was really unheard of for such a small company to do. We ROCKED it thanks to you and your support and love!
If you miss us, you can still find some of us online. Sara started a new blog at DisneyParkPrincess.com -- I strongly urge you to visit and get on her mailing list. She IS the Disney park princess and knows Disney backward and forward. And I am blogging as well at JenniferMaker.com, which is a little craft blog I started a couple of years ago to make ends meet. You can see and hear me in my craft show at https://www.youtube.com/c/jennifermaker . Many PassPorter readers and fans are on Facebook, in groups they formed like the PassPorter Trip Reports and PassPorter Crafting Challenge (if you join, just let them know you read about it in the newsletter). And some of our most devoted community members started a forum of their own at Pixie Dust Lane and all are invited over.
So we encourage you to stay in touch with us and your fellow community members wherever works best for you!
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Hello,
I will be taking my DD and 3 of her friends on a WDW-DCL-WDW trip in January. They will be 19 and 20 years old. They really want to go to on beach excursion in Bahamas where the legal age is 18 and order pina coladas while there.
I've told them I need permission slips from their parents since they are technically minors and they are limited to 1 drink. And all have to have permission or no one drinks.
I'm on the fence about this as one parent is pretty opposed. I will be on the excursion supervising regardless.
I've not had this question come up before and would like other parents opinions.
Thanks for listening.
That is a hard question to answer, in Manitoba the legal drinking age is 18 so personally I don’t have an issue with it as long as they are responsible and listen to your wishes.
I think if you don’t make a big deal about drinking and you drink responsibly in front of your children and also discuss the importance of not drinking and driving, your children are more apt to drink responsibly.
If you are on a Disney excursion then sorry, the drinking age is still 21. You would have to book your own excursion or find a local beach that serves alcohol.
As far as the ethics, I feel the US does a poor job of teaching responsible drinking. But it is best to honor the parents wishes.
I think your "all or none" rule has put you into a really tough place. I would have stayed out of it. At 19 and 20 years old, presumably these young ladies are in college (or out of high school) and basically responsible for themselves much of the time. Personally, I think it's a family issue and as a chaperoning parent I would not insert myself into the middle of it. She is a legal adult, and regardless of her parents' wishes she is "allowed" to do anything legal in another country. Do you really want to be trying to enforce someone else's family rules? It's also not fair to the other girls to say "she isn't allowed so nobody can."
As a PP mentioned, onboard DCL will not serve them until age 21 so it isn't a worry there. I have no idea how DCL could police the situation at a beach in another country -- DCL's excursion provides transportation to/from beach excursions, but once at the beach you are free to go/do/eat/play/etc. without DCL supervision. The "permission slips" you've requested of the young ladies' parents means nothing. They aren't "technically minors" in any form -- they are legally adults.
I would back down from the position of enforcing other families' rules, and simply encourage the young ladies to have discussions with their parents before leaving, and then remind them on the cruise that they will need to deal with any consequences of their actions after they get home.
Personally, it isn't your job to enforce the drinking age. In the Bahamas, the legal age is 18, so they aren't considered minors there. And in the U.S., they aren't minors either - true, they can't drink here yet, but they still aren't considered minors.
Permission slips seem a bit ridiculous, especially at that age. I have an 18 year old daughter and if she asked for a permission slip, I'd probably laugh. The permission slip isn't a legally binding document, so it means nothing. They are old enough to do the beach excursion on their own. They have to grow up and be adults at some point and be responsible for their own actions. You can't supervise them for the rest of their lives.
Good luck as I agree with the others - you've put yourself in the middle of something you shouldn't have. You have absolutely no control over what the other girls do, with or without "permission slips" as you are not a parent. I would be more concerned with having permission to allow medical treatment should something happen rather than whether they want a drink or not.
I have to agree with the other posters. They're legal adults, young adults and not legal to drink in the U.S, but legal adults nonetheless. And as such don't need permission to do something that's legal for them to do either here in the U.S or any other country they happen to be in. Tbh, I think you've put yourself in a no win situation that has serious potential to turn in to an ugly power struggle with plenty of anger and resentment on all sides.
Thank you for your insight. It was honestly a" knee jerk" reaction because I hadn't even considered they might want have an alcoholic beverage in the Bahamas. I wasn't really prepared for the question. I told the girls to talk it over with their parents and I would trust them to be responsible.
I do appreciate your opinions though, helped me out very much.
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